Will iPhone 8 Be The Last Successful Device Of Apple?

While talking to CNBC on Friday, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said that the Cupertino-based iPhone maker will benefit from the pent-up demand for smartphone updates with the iPhone 8 later in 2017 but growth in the business in uncertain after that. Sacconaghi told CNBC on Friday that the smartphone is a mature product and that is the preponderance of revenues and profits of the tech giant.

Analyst says there is no doubt that the best days of Apple are gone

The Bernstein analyst said that Apple is going to have to find new things beyond the smartphone for it to really grow meaningfully again, and that is a big question mark. These remarks by Sacconaghi come two days after Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley investor and CEO of PayPal, agreed with the idea that “the age of Apple is over.” He told the New York Times that they know what a smartphone looks like and does and it is not the fault of Tim Cook (Apple Chief executive) but it is not an area where there will be any more innovation.

In an interview with the New York Times, Thiel said that there is not much major innovation to be had in smartphones anymore. The Bernstein analyst said that because the Silicon Valley giant has already hit the law of large numbers, it is never going to grow as fast as it once did. He added that the best days of the tech giant are behind it and there is no doubt about it.

According to Investors.com, on Monday, the stock of the tech giant “broke out of a cup-with-handle chart pattern, clearing a buy point of 118.12.” Over the past 11 weeks, the Apple stock had been building the pattern.

The iPhone isn’t dead but there’s a lot of pent-up upgraders: Sacconaghi

Sacconaghi said, “Apple’s fortunes going forward will need to come from other sources and, if Apple is unable to move from the smartphone, it’s unclear if this company will be an on-going growing company.” He added that for a couple of years, many investors had the same question and he thinks that continues to be the operative question.

He did say that the iPhone-maker was one of the most spectacular companies in history over the last decade and he does not totally agree with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

He said that the iPhone making giant is investing in not just one area but in several areas to find the next big growth opportunities, including the streaming video and Apple Watch. Other analysts have indicated augmented reality products and self-driving cars as businesses that the smartphone making giant could pursue. On the stock market recently, the stock of the tech giant declined 0.2% to 119.02. The next near-term catalyst for the Apple stock, in the meantime, is the report of the fiscal first-quarter earnings of the company, which is due out after the market close on Jan. 31.

Nishtha Singh is a iStartup staff reporter who covers tech news, including review of devices, emerging startups, acquisitions, gadgets, Cars, Cloud, EVs, AR, VR, AI and more. Further, she is a reader, a tech-enthusiast, and a writer. Editor at Teenage Publishing and proof-reader at Evoque Publishing.